Please scroll down for the list of important dates.

As we have seen a significant increase in illnesses over the past few weeks,
we'd like to share the following excerpts from our Family Handbook as a friendly reminder of the school's policies. 

 Children should not attend school when the following conditions are present:

 Temperature above 100 degrees. 
 Unusual drowsiness, excessive sleep or the child appears ill. 
 Vomiting two or more times in a 24-hour period. 
 Three or more loose or watery bowel movements in a 24-hour period. 
 Body rash with fever. 
 Severe cough or difficulty breathing. 
 Red swollen eyes or pus draining from eyes.
 Open areas on the skin 
 Ringworm, lice or pinworm.

Any student evidencing a rash, sores, or other physical problems will be excluded from the Academy. When a child is absent with a contagious disease or illness, the parent/guardian should notify the Academy office. In order for your child to be admitted back into the Academy, parents must comply with County Health guidelines. Please contact the Academy office for further information.

A student may be excused from physical education for one day with a note from the parent/guardian. Extended excuses will be honored upon receipt of a physician’s note.
 

What Testing Can Do

Children across the state and nation are taking the winter NWEA test, and before we know it, spring will be upon us (I hope!), and that will bring another round of standardized tests. The rounds of tests, for all students, are the result of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which was signed into law 13 years ago.  The rounds of testing are, arguably, the most controversial aspect of that law which has now transitioned into ESSA, or the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

It is important to recognize why these tests were required under NCLB and continue to be a part of education today. The great value the tests have on a national and state scale is shining a light on inequity. Many people think that poor communities and communities of color were “losers” in the accountability push. But, that is not the case; instead, what was suddenly there to see in the open was that some schools were not doing right by their kids and families. The early days of NCLB showered money on the lowest performing schools, and, through Title 1 and other federal programs, there is continued support for programs in low performing schools. The difference post NCLB is that our actions have to result in student learning. It seems crazy to say, but that wasn’t always the case.

At the school level, the tests tell us quite a bit about the big picture. We can see trends related to learning standards and may see that, as a school, we need to get better in some areas. Similarly, we can document groups of students…are our high flyers continuing to grow at a rapid pace? Are we catching up the kids who needed a boost?

In many respects, this information is almost more valuable to us than the individual data. It is important to us to document and celebrate student growth on these tests, and to use the information to inform student work plans in class. However, this data is just one small piece in a student’s achievement. Although in the aggregate we are spending a lot of time testing, for each individual child over the course of the year, the child is only spending three and a half hours on NWEA (45 minutes per test on average, three times per year).

In the case of M-Step, it is not a timed test so students can take as long as they like, but averages and recommended test times TOTAL are 3 ½ hours for grades 3 and 4, 5-6 hours (over several sessions) for grades 5 and 8, and 4 hours for grades 6 and 7.  Again, this is total test times as an average—schools are encouraged to schedule in shorter chunks based on age. In a school year with over 1,100 hours, dedicating 10 to standardized tests seems reasonable.

Because these tests measure a fairly narrow band of skills, and because of the very nature of standardized tests in general, they certainly are not perfect. But, because they are highly correlated with future success in school and college the tests are a useful tool for us as a school, as a community, and as a state and nation. We are committed to preparing our students for success in whatever they decide to do, and this is just one more measure to make sure that we are reliably on that path. Unfortunately, it is impossible to legislate high expectations, but as a school we know that our response to the test is more important than the test itself.

FOSTERING THE LOVE OF BOOKS

"The four-year-old boy picks out a book from the shelf in the reading corner. Holding it close to his body, he moves slowly to sit in the rocking chair. With a delighted expression on his face, he carefully begins to turn the pages and then he leans over and smells the book.

A few days earlier the teacher had given a lesson on how to "break in" a new book and when she finished, she sniffed the book, remarking how much she loved the smell of a new book.

Fostering the love of books happens in many ways: choosing quality literature, reading aloud to children, and setting up the reading corner. Helpful Practical Life lessons include how to open a book, how to turn the pages, how to put a book back on the shelf, etc. Older children can learn to repair a torn page or broken cover."